Judge, 1907-03-02 · page 10 of 16
Judge — March 2, 1907 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a six-panel comic strip from Judge magazine (1907) depicting teddy bears sledding with a child named Johnny. The narrative follows a slapstick sequence: six teddy bears pile onto Johnny's sled and slide downhill, but crash into a horse standing in the snow. The startled horse bucks violently, throwing the bears into the air in all directions. The final panels show the bears scattered and dazed in the snow, contemplating their misadventure. The humor is purely physical comedy—no political or social satire. This appears to be children's entertainment capitalizing on the then-recent "teddy bear" craze (named after President Theodore Roosevelt). The bears' anthropomorphic personalities and their chaotic misfortune create straightforward slapstick humor typical of early 1900s popular entertainment. The strip assumes reader familiarity with teddy bears as beloved toys.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE TEDDY BEARS. THEY CO OUT WITH LITTLE JOHHNY TO SLIDE ON THE HILL AND HAVE THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES, 1, Six Teddies pile on. Johnny's sled. 2. My! how those shavers split the breeze! What jolly times they see ahead! But what's this little Johnny sees? Young Whitey gives the bunch a push, Sleds have a way sometimes, you know, And off they go down with a rush. Of hitting stumps hid in the snow. . And now you see just where they lit! The poor horse nearly had a fit, Then straightway tore off down the road, In hopes of shaking his strange load. 3. Just why, we cannot tell, of course, But where that sled struck stood a horse. Just now the Teddies, full of fright, Are wond’ring where they're going to light. 5, As soon as he began to kick 6. And now they sit round in the snow— He shook his load off mighty quick, You'd think they would get up and go. And then the whole surrounding air But if you were ever in such a deal Was just chock full of Teddy bear. Perhaps you know how the Teddies feel. COPYRIGHT 1907 BY JUDGE COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 225 FOURTH AVE, NEW YORK. comicbooks.com